One of the earliest childhood played games involves some type of battle. Whether it be "good guys" against "bad guys", cowboys and indians or cops and robbers, a "shooter" and "target" theme prevails in these basic games. The variations on the shooting-type theme games are numerous, and are based upon the age level of the children involved as well as the sophistication of the equipment available for playing of the game. Guns may be anything from imaginary to realistic looking models of actual firearms. As children grow older, so does the sophistication of the game rules and game equipment.
With the technological advances in the electronics field, cowboy and indian shooting games have evolved into sophisticated audio visual games involving battles between planet inhabitants and alien invaders. A battle with the aliens is carried out on a cathode ray tube display in which the sole player controls a joystick or push-button in order to "fight" the enemy. With the advances in audio visual games, the one-on-one individual player interaction and much of the independence of player involvement and physical movement in fighting a battle has been lost. The player's ability to plot strategies, utilize the terrain to his best advantage and carry out tactical strategies in a battle have mostly been delegated to the computer of the audio visual game and not the player.
Although the sophistication of an audio visual game has appealed to many, there are still children of all ages that enjoy a game in which they can shoot PG,4 at a moving target as well as becoming a target themselves. Such games involve much interaction between the players; however, it is rather subjective as to whether a player has actually shot a target. It is therefore difficult to know when a player has actually "won" the game and if so, by how much he has beaten the "enemy". Unlike the scoring of an audio visual game, points are not automatically accumulated for shooting robbers as they are for shooting aliens under computer control.
A need has thus arisen for a shooting type game involving the sophistication of an audio visual game yet the simplicity of a childhood "good guys" and "bad guys" game. Such a game must provide feedback to each of the players as to whether they have been shot and must also compile a score informing each player of the number of targets he has shot. Such a game must also provide for interaction with the playing field in the form of obstacles which must be negotiated by the players in their pursuit of the "enemy" and their score.